Framing of Muslims

Framing of Muslims

Exoticism, Criticism and Appropriation

Not a day goes by without mass media reporting about Muslims: reports and discussions about headscarves, mosques, terrorism and other topics. Yet few people realise that the present-day images, views and arguments have a long history. A century ago, countries like France and the Netherlands governed large colonial empires with tens of millions Muslim inhabitants. Newspapers in these countries paid considerable attention to questions related to Muslims and Islam. The ways these popular newspapers 'framed' Muslims still continue to influence our perception today. 
In my PhD thesis, I examined the French and Dutch newspaper framing of three key themes: mosques, the pilgrimage to Mecca and the position of Muslim women. In the interwar period, France and the Netherlands adopted different approaches for dealing with religion and colonialism. I used a quantitative content analysis of over 1,400 articles to systematically identify the news frames. I then zoomed in on individual articles to understand the social, cultural, political and historical context in which the texts were produced.
The thesis shows that the interwar newspaper discourse was rich and complicated. Seemingly contradictory representations of Muslims co-existed throughout the 1920s and 1930s. French and Dutch representations reflected the national contexts in which they were produced. Yet despite some notable differences, the French and Dutch press largely framed Muslims in similar ways, which suggests the existence of a European discourse that transcended national boundaries. This thesis puts forward three imperialist discursive strategies that dominated the interwar press discourse on Muslims: exoticism, criticism and appropriation. These discursive strategies often seemed contradictory at the surface and led to very different arguments. However, all three of them offered substantial support for the civilising mission and, consequently, the continuation of European imperialist rule over Muslim societies.

'Cruel Murderers, Dangerous Fanatics or Exotic Strangers'

Before starting my PhD, I already studied the representations of Muslims in the press in two different master theses. In the first one, I analysed the contemporary French and Dutch press coverage of Islam-related topics. The second thesis focused on newspapers in the 1890s. This thesis was rewarded the Vliegenthart Thesis Award 2011, for the best thesis written at Utrecht University that year.

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